Chapter 88 Please...
In that split second, something changed. Red eyes suddenly took over Lila's normal vision completely. Her sight cleared with supernatural sharpness that made everything look hyper-detailed.
Time seemed to slow. She moved swiftly, smoothly, impossibly fast in a way her body shouldn't have been capable of. She dodged the dagger's trajectory with perfect timing while simultaneously reaching up and catching it cleanly by the handle mid-flight.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes widened in complete shock. How had she been able to do that? That level of speed and coordination wasn't humanly possible, especially not for her.
She was supposed to be fragile, a princess with the cursed wolf. Red was abnormal and feared by everyone who knew about it. She'd deliberately suppressed her wolf for years and years, never practicing combat or martial arts or any physical training. And now she'd suddenly dodged a thrown dagger with swift precision and caught the weapon cleanly as if she'd trained for years. As if her body knew exactly what to do without conscious thought.
"Nice skills you have there." The deep voice cut sharply through her shocked spiraling thoughts.
The shirtless man who'd been training stepped forward into better light from a torch mounted on the wall, burning with treated wood that produced steady flame without being consumed.
His brown eyes met hers first and held her gaze. Then his distinctive scent hit her senses strongly. That unmistakable combination of wood and fresh leaves that she'd noticed before.
It was him. The same person who'd saved her from public humiliation.
But seeing him clearly now, illuminated properly, she realized something. He was strikingly handsome in a rugged dangerous way. Not soft court beauty but hard-earned warrior attractiveness. She found herself staring and couldn't seem to look away.
Keal's brows twisted as he studied Lila carefully. He noticed how her lips trembled slightly with cold or shock. How her eyes had widened as though in sudden great realization of something important she'd forgotten.
He scoffed dismissively. Was she actually joking right now? The supposedly famous Moonstone princess, an outcast from her own kingdom who everyone whispered about, suddenly couldn't remember him at all?
He'd personally cuffed her hands with iron restraints and ridden with her for two full exhausting days straight back to the Northern Kingdom. He'd saved her from complete public shame and scandal when she'd run frantically naked through the palace out of traumatized confused sleep.
And now she was looking at him even more confused than before, as if seeing him for the first time?
"Don't bother saying thank you." His voice came out cold and deliberately dismissive. "I helped you not because I particularly care about you or your situation. You were just causing major problems by running around naked and disrupting the entire palace."
Lila's hands flew up to cover her mouth in absolute horror. "You... you're the person with brown eyes from my memory. I..." She immediately started pulling the cashmere coat from her shoulders with fumbling fingers. "I remember running through a lobby with freezing cold stone under bare feet. I remember strong arms holding me and someone covering me from the terrible cold. But I swear I didn't remember being..." She couldn't even say the word.
"Keep it." Keal's voice cut her off sharply. "I don't take back what I give to people."
Lila froze mid-motion but then deliberately pulled the coat fully off anyway, shivering immediately in the frigid air. All she could remember was specific training she'd received at Moonstone Province.
The one lesson her mother had actually bothered teaching her. Never repay genuine kindness with empty meaningless words alone. Actions and sacrifices mattered infinitely more than gratitude spoquite hide.
"You don't even know who I am either? You're actually truly losing significant memory? How is that even medically possible?"
"I do remember you," Lila insisted earnestly, meeting his eyes. "You saved me from something terrible and gave me your warm coat when I was frightened and freezing cold." She stretched her arms toward him further, offering the coat again. "I'm deeply grateful. Thank you."
Keal sighed deeply and heavily. Not much truly surprised him in life anymore after everything he'd survived. He'd lived through too much horror.
From watching everything he loved burn completely to ash, to being trapped endlessly in vivid nightmares about his family's brutal death while he'd stood frozen nearby, too scared and weak to help them or save anyone.
He'd grown up fighting those recurring nightmares every single night, that crushing pain, that completely crippling fear that made him feel worthless.
And she, this strange cursed princess everyone whispered about, had somehow powerfully reminded him of that most terrible moment. When he'd held her trembling body and instinctively calmed her against his chest. Just exactly like his mother had done for him so many times before she'd also died horribly right before his helpless eyes while he watched and did nothing.
Keal walked closer with deliberate steps and took the coat from her cold hands. But instead of keeping it, he gently draped it back carefully over Lila's thin shivering frame.
"The weather is bitterly cold tonight. Keep it on." His voice was quieter now, less harsh. "Thank me more appropriately some other time when you're not freezing."
He wrapped it carefully around her shoulders with unexpected gentleness, adjusting it so it covered her properly and tucked against her neck. Their eyes met briefly and held for a moment, but he looked away quickly and stepped back, putting deliberate distance between them.
His face shifted back to cold stern composure as he turned and began walking away into the deep shadows.
"Please..." Lila called out immediately as she watched his retreating figure disappearing. She was completely unsure if she'd somehow provoked him with her insistence or if he simply disliked her automatically like absolutely everyone else in this horrible place seemed to. "May I know your name? I'd like to remember it properly."
Her voice trembled noticeably. Was she even allowed to ask such a personal question? He clearly wanted to leave and end this interaction. But she desperately needed to know who he was.
"Keal." He said the single word simply without looking back or slowing his departure. Then he vanished completely and silently into the cold night like a ghost.
Lila stood alone and looked back at the training area. The practice sword lay abandoned carelessly where he'd left it, along with several other weapons scattered around.
The dagger she'd impossibly caught was still gripped in her hand.
She carefully and respectfully picked up all the weapons one by one and placed them neatly together in proper order, organizing them with care out of ingrained respect for weapons and the warriors who used them.
Just as she finished and turned to leave and return to her cold chambers, strong arms suddenly grabbed her violently from behind without warning.
A rough calloused hand covered her mouth tightly, cutting off her scream before it could form.
She was pulled backward with brutal force into the pitch darkness between two buildings where no torchlight reached.